“Where does he live? In the woods here? He always arrives so quickly,” Gabriela asked.
“He likes to patrol out here, it’s part of our route,” Jeremy replied. “Plus he’s always hoping Mom will invite him over for a meal. His wife, Patty, is always pregnant and moody.”
They had Gabriela retrace her route and point out where she’d spotted what she thought had been a wild animal.
Gabriela looked through the trees. “You know now that I think about it. Whatever it was had either a white fur hat or was blond.”
Are there blond whitish animals around here?
At her questions, the men looked at each other looking as if they tried to keep from laughing.
“No ma’am,” Glen finally replied. “Not that I can think of.”
Finally, they stopped asking her questions and she hurried to the warmth of the truck while the men walked slowly from the cabin, through the trees, scanning the area.
Meanwhile Gabriela sat in the truck and checked her messages on her cell.
An hour later, the forensics team was back, more yellow tape had been put up and Jeremy remained talking with Williams.
Gabriela climbed out of the truck cab. “Unless you need me for anything else, I’m walking back.”
Detective Sanders hurried to her. “Just a few more questions.”
And so she remained for another hour.
Chapter Ten
Jeremy was glad that Glen had brought them coffee from the local café. The coffee at the police station seemed to get worse every week.
While they reviewed the data on their prospective cases, Jeremy admitted to wanting to continue to date Gabriela.
“I could transfer to San Diego,” he suggested.
“You can’t be serious,” Williams said, shaking his head. “Do you have any idea how different being a cop in San Diego will be? Who’s to say they’ll take you on as a detective? Not only that, but you’ll have to learn everything the local boys know. No contacts, no support system, per se.”
Everything Williams said made sense. However, Jeremy wasn’t sure what to do. He wasn’t about to demand Gabriela be the one to move. Although she could work from anywhere, it wasn’t fair to assume she’d leave her family. It would be hard for him to move to California, but he planned to propose, and it would be lame to do so and then ask that she leave everything.
“I’ll have to take a chance. Not sure how else to go about this.” Jeremy leaned back in his chair. “This long distance shit is for the birds. Only a month and it’s killing me.”
Someone walked by pulling a drunk by the arm. The man smelled as if he’d taken a dump in his pants and Williams gagged. “Hate to know what your car smells like. Take him to the shower area,” Williams called out after the cop who replied with a middle finger.
He then turned back to Jeremy. “What about the festival? Has it been decided who’s going to do it next year yet?”
“No. Molly keeps hemming and hawing over it and I’m waiting for her decision. In a way I don’t want to do it, but then I think of all the memories and how it can be a tradition for our kids.”
“Yeah.”
“Hawkins, Williams, come ‘ere,” the captain called out from his doorway and they rushed to find out what their next assignment would be.
He stood by a column at the Missoula airport and waited for Gabriela to appear. Finally, after Jeremy began to wonder if she’d made it, he spotted the head of curls and her bright smile. His chest expanded and he rushed to envelop her in a bear hug. She giggled, but didn’t protest. Thankfully, she only brought a carry-on, so they could go straight to his truck and leave.
“You look different,” Gabriela said inspecting him. “Haircut and a bit thinner. Did you stop eating or something?”
It was hard to explain that lack of appetite was one of the side effects of her leaving and returning to California. Even his mother had begun asking him to come over on the weekends, so she could try to feed him.
“I’ve been working out a bit more, so I guess it’s been burning up extra calories.” It was true, he did hit the gym in an effort to distract himself. It didn’t help that work was slow and even Henry, who’d been spending more time at the VFW, didn’t need him as much.
“You’re still the hottest man I’ve ever met.” Gabriela leaned over and her tongue darted out. She licked up the side of his neck and nipped his ear. “Perfect.”
And now he wasn’t sure how to keep from pulling over and yanking all her clothes off. “Thanks.” He grinned. “Mom wants us to come for supper tonight. I hope that’s okay.”
“Sounds perfect.” Gabriela checked her watch. “We have the entire day to do stuff. What do you want to do?” She gave him a mock innocent look complete with batting of lashes.
Jeremy laughed. “Is that all you think about?”
“Pretty much.”
Of course, he wasn’t hard to convince, and they passed the next couple of hours wearing nothing but smiles at his place.
He sighed as Gabriela snuggled against him. “I’m staying a week this time.” Her husky voice made him inhale. How he enjoyed the sound of it. The silkiness of her skin was another distraction. One of the things his mind returned to over and again while she was gone.
“Gabriela, we need to talk,” Jeremy said, his heartbeat immediately picking up.
Perfectly impersonating Dracula rising from his coffin, Gabriela was up and standing next to the bed. “You’d better not break up with me right after sex. I will find your service piece and unload it.”
He couldn’t help finding the humor in the situation. “You’re going to shoot me?”
Gabriela rolled her pretty eyes. “No, but I’ll shoot up everything in this room.”
Admittedly, he’d started the conversation off wrong. On second thought, perhaps he’d wait and propose fully dressed. The ranch would make a good backdrop, and he could ask his
